f, to forty
degrees.]

It must be remarked, that the _Sirius_, in the month of December 1788,
saw several islands of ice in nearly the same latitude and longitude.

At the Cape of Good Hope Captain Parker had met with Captain Edwards of
the _Pandora_, who delivered to him Mary Braud, the widow of Bryant, who
escaped to Timor in the fishing cutter, with one of the children, and
only four of the male convicts who accompanied Bryant in his flight.
Bryant died at Batavia, with the other child, and two of his companions;
one of them, James Cox, was said to be drowned in the Straits of Sunda.
On their arrival in England the story of their sufferings in the boat
excited much compassion; and, before the _Bellona_ sailed, they had been
brought up to the bar of the Old Bailey, and ordered by the court to
remain in Newgate until the period of their original sentence of
transportation should expire, there to finish their unsuccessful attempts
to regain their liberty.

While the cargo of the _Bellona_ was landing much of it was found to be
damaged; the ship had been overloaded, and had met with very boisterous
weather on her passage. This practice of crowding too much into one ship
had in many instances been very prejudicial to the colony; in the present
instance, of the Russia duck, which was excellent in its kind, and which
had cost the sum of L6636 0s 9d; sixty-eight bales, containing thirteen
thousand one hundred and forty-eight yards, were damaged; sixty-nine casks
of flour also were found to be much injured. Of seventy-six hogsheads of
molasses, eleven hundred and seventy-two gallons were found to have leaked
out; one cask of pork was stinking and rotten; seventy-nine gallons of
rum, and one hundred and ninety-eight gallons of wine, were deficient,
owing to improper stowage; three hundred and thirty-five hammocks,
thirteen rugs, five hundred and twenty-seven yards of brown cloths, and
one case of stationary, were rendered totally unfit for use. Of the
articles thus found to be unserviceable to the colony, there was not one
which in its proper state would not have been valuable; and when the
expense attending their conveyance, the risk of the passage, the
inconvenience that must be felt from the want of every damaged article,
and the impossibility of getting them replaced for a great length of
time, were considered, it was difficult to ascertain their precise value.

Among the occurrences of this month one appears to deserve